Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an illumination device attachable to and detachable from an imaging apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
An illumination device including a ring-shaped or a circular arc-shaped light emitting unit extending along an outer circumference of a leading end of an imaging lens (i.e., imaging lens barrel) is commonly used in a macro image capturing in which an object image is captured at a close distance. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-215574 discusses an illumination device including a ring-shaped light emitting unit configured of a plurality of light sources such as circular arc-shaped xenon tubes disposed along the outer circumference of an imaging lens.
In recent years, with the size reduction of a camera main body, there has been an increasing demand for of the size reduction of the illumination device attached to the camera. With respect to the illumination device configured of a power source unit and the light emitting unit provided separately as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-215574, it is desirable that the size of the power source unit be reduced in order to be attached to the camera without a feeling of strangeness.